The number seven is the number of completion. There are seven chakras, seven colors of the rainbow, seven wonders in the world, seven days of the week, seven continents, and seven souls on this elevator making it's way to the lobby. The team showed up at seven p.m. for the taping. It's nearly two A.M. and that means seven hours have gone by. Seven minds are registering all they've just endured. Seven faces wet with tears and red from exertion. Tonight has been a lot.
Logan and Kendall are down on the ground with James trying desperately to keep him awake. Logan keeps muttering about how he needs a hospital and how he's only an intern and yet he keeps doing thing that he's learned. Keeping James breathing. Keeping him alive.
"Bring me that discarded fabric." And Kendall brings him the sweater vest.
"Hold his head up." And Kendall wraps his fingers around James' skull.
"Brace him, I'm going to try the Grey Method." And Kendall moves his hands down to James' lower back and hoists him so that Logan can conduct a maneuver of repetitive pressure point indication on the abdomen.
The elevator ride down is slower than the ride up and even that took a while. This is truly a time of great grief. Sylvia stands up against a wall with her hands to her bloody face and a satchel over her shoulders as she consoles herself. The sobs attack her in waves and just when she thinks she's okay they come back. She's all out of fight. Her body convulses in time. She tried so hard to make sure she and her sister were just that. They used to run through the rain at night and laugh... that's over. She can't even hold her close for the last time.
Logan is also in grief. He's not blind. He saw Camille's head on the corridor floor when they tripped over it. Still he pushes his pain way down into his stomach and continues doing everything he can to keep James alive. It's working so he keeps trying.
Katie, who'd just lost a dear friend, walks up to Sylvia. There's a deep swallow and a small hesitation before she says, "What did he mean?"
Sylvia looks up at her through a snotty, messy face. There's just a puzzled look on her face. A confused state.
"Dice. When he said you were innocent and that Jen was behind this, what did he mean?" Katie probes.
Sylvia wipes her face and says, "I'm a horror fan. A game show host. Tonight was supposed to be fun and full of tricks. It was supposed to put my sister and I back on the map with the help of producer John Haney. My sister Jen didn't tell me she was getting involved in something this dark." She hyperventilates for a second and then says, "I killed her- I- I took my sister's life tonight because what she was doing was wrong. That boy there-" She points at the kid Carlos is holding, "he's not supposed to be here. None of you are but that's a child. That's a lot even for her... and I'm sorry."
Katie eases off. She knows Sylvia is telling the truth. And with a single step she's backed away but Sylvia isn't done. The remaining Soska twin rests the duffel bag she's carrying into Katie's hand, "This is your teams. You earned it. I wouldn't feel right unless you took it. I'm sorry about Camille, and about Kelly. I didn't know Kelly was here."
The elevator dings and opens but the cage is still shut. They're on the lobby floor. Logan scoops James into his arms. There's a flourish in the air. A music only Carlos can hear but a feeling that they all share. Like they made it. Like this is the end of the nightmare. Kendall and Carlos, once again, open that gate together and across the room the chains are no longer on the front door. Who took them down? I doubt we'll ever know.
Big Time Rush, Hacker Katie Knight, and the innocent little boy make their way to the exit. The door opens with an ease and the rain has come to a slow drizzle. Carlos walks out first still holding onto the shaking child, then Logan steps out with James in his clutch. Kendall hangs back with Katie to look at Sylvia who's still in the elevator.
"Come on." Says Katie.
Sylvia shakes her head, "There's still a monster on the loose. My sister brought it here. I have to send it back... goodbye brave Knights. Get the Hell out..." She laughs and it's sweet and she smiles and it's pure because her tears are falling to the floor.
Kendall takes his sister's hand and pulls her out the front door. There's a slew of things that happen so quickly. The police arrive, as they always do, at the very last minute. An ambulance takes James and the boy. The police question Kendall and Carlos and Katie stands in the flashing blue and red lights with a quilt over her shoulders. Logan explains the injuries to the EMTs and rides away with them to the nearest hospital. It's over. She did it. She saved her brother and his friends. More tears fall to the concrete as she looks back at the slaughterhouse. She stares up at it's eerie darkness feeling almost obsolete.
Then after a bit the police leave and her brother is at her side. He's helping her to the car and then he's driving them away with Carlos behind her on the passenger side. Her radio is playing at it's SYML's 'Breathtaker' that floods her ears as the nighttime highway blurs in her vision. slowly she cries herself to sleep. She did it. In a display of honor and loyalty she showed her the boys she's one of them. They will never forget what she's done for them.
EIGHT MONTHS LATER...
The sheets are cool. The sun is bright as it fragments through the blinds. His body is at ease as he reaches through the thickness of a soft, cold pillow on a hot June day. There's the smell of citrus in his nose. The sound of laughter in his ears. Just outside his bedroom door James, Logan, and Katie tell jokes at clink glasses that they drink from. The Carribean hotel resort in palm beach Florida is where he wakes up today.
Carlos is slow to pull himself up from the comfort of the bed and when Kendall's hands find his bare stomach he smiles. Small, sweet kisses find his neck and he turns to look at his lover's kind and beautiful face. There's love here. Love and the smell of fresh coffee which steams in a cup on the night stand beside him. They kiss. It's a dream and Carlos never wants to wake up from it.
He never will. As it happens only a month after their little broadcast all five of them woke up to the deposit of ten thousand dollars each flooding their bank accounts and a small message signed S.S. in the mail. Thus providing what little fraction of that it took for this vacation. Whatever Sylvia had up her sleeve for that monster must have worked for no one else had been bothered by it. It is now 2025 and that means, that for at least twenty two years, man kind can live in peace. The occasional Jigsaw copycat will appear, the tunnels beneath Los Angeles and New York still hold their secrets, and the illuminati are still at large but for now the boys from apartment 2B and their smart, capable sister Katie are safe and deemed heroes by the state of California for their rescue of Lincoln Loud. Their episode aired, and the world saw it. Now they're dodging paparazzi, they're day drinking, and they're playing arcade games at the boardwalk when they're not playing in the ocean.
This is their swan song. Their safe haven. Their paradise. With all his heart Kendall Knight will love Carlos Garcia and Carlos will return that love ten fold. Thank you dear readers. Goodnight.